"You must move to the rear, Colonel Merivale; the French have gained the heights! Move round by the causeway; bring up your squadrons as quickly as you can, and support the infantry!" In a moment we were in our saddles; but scarcely was the word "to fall in" given, when a loud cheer rent the very air; the musketry seemed suddenly to cease, and the dark mass which continued to struggle up the heights wavered, broke, and turned.
"What can that be ?" said Merivale.

"What can it mean ?" "I can tell you, sir," said I, proudly, while I felt my heart throb as though it would bound from my bosom.
"And what is it, boy?
Speak!" "There it goes again! That was an Irish shout! The Eighty-eighth are at them!" "By Jove, here they come!" said Hampden.

"God help the Frenchmen now!" The words were not well spoken, when the red coats of our gallant fellows were seen dashing through the vineyard.
"The steel, boys; nothing but the steel!" shouted a loud voice from the crag above our heads.
I looked up.

It was the stern Picton himself who spoke.

The Eighty-eighth now led the pursuit, and sprang from rock to rock in all the mad impetuosity of battle; and like some mighty billow rolling before the gale, the French went down the heights.
"Gallant Eighty-eighth! Gloriously done!" cried Picton, as he waved his hat.
"Aren't we Connaught robbers, now ?" shouted a rich brogue, as its owner, breathless and bleeding, pressed forward in the charge.
A hearty burst of laughter mingled with the din of the battle.
"Now for it, boys! Now for _our_ work!" said old Merivale, drawing his sabre as he spoke.